if you were russ brandon, would you have resigned

[trapezeus]

You are a bills fan, in some of the most senior positions for the last 13 years. You have failed consistently and been continuously promoted. Each hire, each selection worse than the last. At this current juncture, would your pride step in and say, "i'm not good at this and i'm hurting a community that i actually like." or would you be a slave to that nice paycheck and keep stealing it until they literally made you walk away?

Fair question, i think. Only because i had this conversation. if i was hurting something that i loved so much and it was obvious that my involvement was hurting it, i would step aside. sweet paycheck or not.

[BLeonard]

The problem with that is, Russ Brandon isn't a Bills fan.

Yeah, he went to St. John Fisher college. So what? That doesn't make him a Bills fan.

The guy is a business man, pure and simple. Just because he is from Rochester doesn't change that.

Hell, he learned from arguably the best shysters in professional sports: The Florida Marlins.

Why would he resign? He's doing his ultimate job: Convincing suckers to continue to buy tickets, merchandise, etc year after year, with little to no success on the playing field.

-Bill

[ghz in pittsburgh]

You are a bills fan, in some of the most senior positions for the last 13 years. You have failed consistently and been continuously promoted. Each hire, each selection worse than the last. At this current juncture, would your pride step in and say, "i'm not good at this and i'm hurting a community that i actually like." or would you be a slave to that nice paycheck and keep stealing it until they literally made you walk away?

Fair question, i think. Only because i had this conversation. if i was hurting something that i loved so much and it was obvious that my involvement was hurting it, i would step aside. sweet paycheck or not.

There is no CEO or VP in organizations that I know who does not fight his/her way up (well maybe one exception for a lady who some may substitute fight to sleep) and have strong self belief. Family business is excluded because blood line is into the equation. I can tell you the thinking is not resign or Geeze, I'm embarassing organization. Rather it is if I can hire that guy or if I have more control than things will be different ...

[feldspar]

Russ Brandon is a businessman. He has done things like negotiating stadium leases, marketing, setting up deals with Toronto (UGH!) to "expand the fanbase," and maximizing the worth of the Buffalo Bills brand. He's tried to make the Bills economically feasible, which probably hasn't exactly been easy. He's an executive, for crying out loud.

He's NOT a football guy. He has NEVER been responsible for what takes place on the field. He briefly was some sort of half-assed de facto GM after Marv Levy left, but he never held that GM title. We did have the Wood, Levitre, and Byrd draft then, but like I say, Russ Brandon is not a football guy. He's never been responsible for the actual product on the field...he has just supported and promoted the organization; that's been his job. Now he's the President, the only person to be that besides Ralph Wilson and Tom Donahoe for the Bills. I think Ralph is done, although he does not wish to relinquish ownership, obviously. Brandon has more responsibility now, but he's not the reason the Bills have had a bad football team in the past.

Anyway, if you are looking for a scapegoat, don't bother looking to Brandon. He's been a businessman, not a football guy. Not that I'm a fan of his or anything, but if the Bills have lost games in the past, it's not his fault.

Tell me exactly how he's "hurt the team" then we'll have something to talk about.

[Typ0]

If there are obstacles you cannot overcome to doing your job you resign. That is the case where you move on because no matter what you do there is no way to get ahead. Maybe he did resign and Wilson is the one who stepped aside instead. Just an idea!

[split71]

The assumption here is that HE thinks he's failing. I don't believe that is the case...as others have stated, the Bills are making money and expanding the fan base. In his mind he's successful.

God did I just say that....successful.

[Mr. Pink]

He has been successful at what his job is.

Why would he resign?

[feldspar]

The assumption here is that HE thinks he's failing. I don't believe that is the case...as others have stated, the Bills are making money and expanding the fan base. In his mind he's successful.

God did I just say that....successful.

But you have to define what his actual duties have been before you determine whether he's done a good job or not.

Tell me what he's failed at.

[trapezeus]

in this day and age of technology and fans that follow simply because of fantasy player stars (ie. how many jerseys do you see of random players on no name teams because they are a great talent?) the bills path to building fanbase is pathetic. they are literally stealing pennies by putting out a mediocre team and threatening to move. it's lazy.

you put a winning product out there, and make them good for a period of time, you have people across the globe buying gear and thumping their chest that they were with the team on day 1. (see: patriots, new england).

I'm not saying the bills could rocket past teams in value because they still are in a small market, but if they could actually make you want to buy bills gear, and actually attend a game wher eyou know the crowd is with you, that's excellent. also how many kids under 15 have never known the bills to be good. how are we as the older generation going to hand bills football down to our kids when it bores the crap out of them. how many of these 7-9 seasons have the games been so boring you literally couldn't stand it anymore?

under the description above, brandon is a terrible marketer. and yes, he does get himself involved heavily with players and personell since his GM stint. And they have been atrocious ever since. If i am the CEO and hire a guy myself (Buddy) to sign players, and the players suck for 3 years straight, and his coach can't use his superstar RB, i would fire buddy. "my bad, lets get it right. let's learn something." Instead he's letting buddy ride out one more draft, handing it over to Whaley, who hasn't been able to steer his boss in the right direction. and found another no name coach from college ranks.

The guy sucks at what a senior executive should be doing. I agree, he can't get the benefit of the doubt anymore and he is essentially a shyster until the results change. But i look at the 2012 bills as a team that had some promise if there was a strong minded coach and a QB. and when it fell apart, he blew the whole thing up. Which now puts us in full rebuild. free agents don't want to come here because frankly they see its three years until relevance at best.

I've never felt so hopeless rooting for the bills. and i've felt hopeless plenty of times. he needs to be shamed out of his job and a full re-evaluation of the org needs to happen. but they won't do that, and we'll be stuck with these morons while we have this 7 year lease. We are wasting precious time in getting a winner to buffalo.

[justasportsfan]

He has been successful at what his job is.

Why would he resign?


But you have to define what his actual duties have been before you determine whether he's done a good job or not.

Tell me what he's failed at.


:idunno:

[better days]

You are a bills fan, in some of the most senior positions for the last 13 years. You have failed consistently and been continuously promoted. Each hire, each selection worse than the last. At this current juncture, would your pride step in and say, "i'm not good at this and i'm hurting a community that i actually like." or would you be a slave to that nice paycheck and keep stealing it until they literally made you walk away?

Fair question, i think. Only because i had this conversation. if i was hurting something that i loved so much and it was obvious that my involvement was hurting it, i would step aside. sweet paycheck or not.

I call BS on that. I doubt 1 person in a million would willingly give up his job because others deemed him unsuccessful at it, especially a HIGH PAYING PRESTIGOUS job like Russ has.

[feldspar]

in this day and age of technology and fans that follow simply because of fantasy player stars (ie. how many jerseys do you see of random players on no name teams because they are a great talent?) the bills path to building fanbase is pathetic. they are literally stealing pennies by putting out a mediocre team and threatening to move. it's lazy.

you put a winning product out there, and make them good for a period of time, you have people across the globe buying gear and thumping their chest that they were with the team on day 1. (see: patriots, new england).

I'm not saying the bills could rocket past teams in value because they still are in a small market, but if they could actually make you want to buy bills gear, and actually attend a game wher eyou know the crowd is with you, that's excellent. also how many kids under 15 have never known the bills to be good. how are we as the older generation going to hand bills football down to our kids when it bores the crap out of them. how many of these 7-9 seasons have the games been so boring you literally couldn't stand it anymore?

under the description above, brandon is a terrible marketer. and yes, he does get himself involved heavily with players and personell since his GM stint. And they have been atrocious ever since. If i am the CEO and hire a guy myself (Buddy) to sign players, and the players suck for 3 years straight, and his coach can't use his superstar RB, i would fire buddy. "my bad, lets get it right. let's learn something." Instead he's letting buddy ride out one more draft, handing it over to Whaley, who hasn't been able to steer his boss in the right direction. and found another no name coach from college ranks.

The guy sucks at what a senior executive should be doing. I agree, he can't get the benefit of the doubt anymore and he is essentially a shyster until the results change. But i look at the 2012 bills as a team that had some promise if there was a strong minded coach and a QB. and when it fell apart, he blew the whole thing up. Which now puts us in full rebuild. free agents don't want to come here because frankly they see its three years until relevance at best.

I've never felt so hopeless rooting for the bills. and i've felt hopeless plenty of times. he needs to be shamed out of his job and a full re-evaluation of the org needs to happen. but they won't do that, and we'll be stuck with these morons while we have this 7 year lease. We are wasting precious time in getting a winner to buffalo.

I'm sorry, but you are just all over the place here. I don't think that you understand the concept of marketing. A marketer does not create the product, he just helps to sell it or presents it in a favorable light. Brandon has tried to help the organization as a business, again. Refer to my post above...he's been an executive. I bet you can't name the executives on other teams that had his same responsibilities without cheating, let alone giving them credit or blame for the state of their franchises.

He hasn't been "heavily involved" in player personnel since his "GM stint." He wasn't the GM really, but if he was, we should have kept him on because we had the best Bills draft in recent memory in 2009. Do you really think that HE was personally responsible for hiring Buddy Nix? Ralph Wilson was responsible for that. He was owner and President of the team. If you can point to anything at all that says Brandon hired Nix three years ago and also had the power to fire him during that time, I'd like to hear it. My ears are open.

Brandon is not the one that has been pulling the strings as far as how the team itself has been run. He's not a football guy, although you can start to blame him more from this point forward, as he is now the President of the Buffalo Bills.

[Typ0]

I'm sorry, but you are just all over the place here. I don't think that you understand the concept of marketing. A marketer does not create the product, he just helps to sell it or presents it in a favorable light. Brandon has tried to help the organization as a business, again. Refer to my post above...he's been an executive. I bet you can't name the executives on other teams that had his same responsibilities without cheating, let alone giving them credit or blame for the state of their franchises.

He hasn't been "heavily involved" in player personnel since his "GM stint." He wasn't the GM really, but if he was, we should have kept him on because we had the best Bills draft in recent memory in 2009. Do you really think that HE was personally responsible for hiring Buddy Nix? Ralph Wilson was responsible for that. He was owner and President of the team. If you can point to anything at all that says Brandon hired Nix three years ago and also had the power to fire him during that time, I'd like to hear it. My ears are open.

Brandon is not the one that has been pulling the strings as far as how the team itself has been run. He's not a football guy.


you don't understand marketing. Marketers work to understand the product requirements of consumers and create those products. Then they bring the message to consumers how the products meet their needs. Marketing is not a passive sell like you think....

[trapezeus]

regardles of titles, i think by 2007 it was pretty clear Russ was Ralph's smithers. and i doubt he lived in a marketing silo.

i love that we have to watch him fail again for certain people to think that he is a cancer to this team. It's essentially Darcy-ing the team. "hey i only have 6 years of observation of this guy. let's see how he does, again!"

it's absurd. a real reboot of hte team would have been to get a different executive to come in and pay through the nose. I forget the guy from the giants name, but he's been involved with two superbowl teams, teams that have deep DL and adequate OL. He didn't seem like you'd want to know what he knows and what got them to two superbowls? You'd rather stick it out with russ?

i'm just waiting for everyone to learn what most of us already know. the very top is russ brandon's now. he's been signing off on things for a while for his own profit. when is it going to be beneficial for us.

[feldspar]

you don't understand marketing. Marketers work to understand the product requirements of consumers and create those products. Then they bring the message to consumers how the products meet their needs. Marketing is not a passive sell like you think....

So you are trying to tell me that marketers are necessarily also manufacturers of the product they promote?

[feldspar]

regardles of titles, i think by 2007 it was pretty clear Russ was Ralph's smithers. and i doubt he lived in a marketing silo.

i love that we have to watch him fail again for certain people to think that he is a cancer to this team. It's essentially Darcy-ing the team. "hey i only have 6 years of observation of this guy. let's see how he does, again!"

it's absurd. a real reboot of hte team would have been to get a different executive to come in and pay through the nose. I forget the guy from the giants name, but he's been involved with two superbowl teams, teams that have deep DL and adequate OL. He didn't seem like you'd want to know what he knows and what got them to two superbowls? You'd rather stick it out with russ?

i'm just waiting for everyone to learn what most of us already know. the very top is russ brandon's now. he's been signing off on things for a while for his own profit. when is it going to be beneficial for us.

What Russ Brandon has been doing is following the orders from his boss until now. He's had increasing powers, but he's not the reason the Bills have fielded a bad team IMO.

Like I alluded to before, I'm not trying to pimp Brandon here. I'm not particularly a fan of his either. The discussion here is about what his actual job duties have been. If we had a good coach, good QB, and a decent team, we wouldn't be talking about him at all in all likelihood...or would you be giving him credit for that? I think that the fact that we do not have those things isn't really his fault, but that doesn't mean that I think highly of him in any way. In fact, I think that making him President of the team is a highly dangerous proposition that will likely end badly...but that remains to be seen. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but I wouldn't get into an argument with someone that thinks that Brandon is Ralph Wilson's puppet.

[WagonCircler]

So you are trying to tell me that marketers are necessarily also manufacturers of the product they promote?

Regardless of your hero worship, Brandon is wholly unqualified to be CEO of a football team at ANY level, much less the NFL.

It's unclear whether he has done a good job marketing. He's often given credit for the Toronto deal, but who's to say he wasn't just there to answer the phone when the idiots at Rodgers Communications had a really horrible idea? And either way, I think the deal, despite it's obvious profits, has done massive damage to the brand and immeasurable damage to the football product (basically trading a home game for an extra away game).

Brandon is just another worthless Ralph Wilson crony who has zero business in the job that was just handed to him.

The day Ralph dies will be the beginning of the end for Brandon. No owner in his right mind would keep his worthless ass in charge of a $1 BIL organization.

[feldspar]

Regardless of your hero worship, Brandon is wholly unqualified to be CEO of a football team at ANY level, much less the NFL.

LOL, regardless of your reading comprehension, OWEPFOI)#@$F)0f30ajOIJWS.

I said that Brandon is not to blame for the Bills losing games, and that's not exactly defending him. I think that's true, while others don't and have zero to back up their claims with. I also said that I'm not a fan of Brandon, and I think it's a mistake to make him President. That's likely to end badly.


It's unclear whether he has done a good job marketing. He's often given credit for the Toronto deal, but who's to say he wasn't just there to answer the phone when the idiots at Rodgers Communications had a really horrible idea? And either way, I think the deal, despite it's obvious profits, has done massive damage to the brand and immeasurable damage to the football product (basically trading a home game for an extra away game).

Brandon is just another worthless Ralph Wilson crony who has zero business in the job that was just handed to him.

The day Ralph dies will be the beginning of the end for Brandon. No owner in his right mind would keep his worthless ass in charge of a $1 BIL organization.

Well, the subject we've been talking about was how Brandon has hurt this organization and therefore should re-sign...did you follow the thread? Read the OP? That's just blind hatred, and I tried to turn it into a more rational discussion. As far as anybody knows, Russ Brandon has not made any critical decisions himself about what we've seen on the field. If anybody can prove that he has, I'll pile on top of him like the rest of you. In other words, don't blame him from things that he is not responsible for. Does that sound reasonable? That's been my whole train of thought in this thread.

Again, as far as him being President of the Buffalo Bills, I'm not on board with that. We'll see what he does when he is officially in that spotlight, but I don't have my hopes either. I also agree that Brandon would probably have never caught on with a different team, hasn't demonstrated enough to deserve his current position, and will likely crap out after Ralph dies.

Clear enough?

[YardRat]

Hell no, I'd be all about getting the keys to the kingdom and having the freedom to do things my way.

[Scumbag College]

It has become painfully obvious that winning isn't important at OBD. When ticket sales go down, they bring in Owens, Mario, etc.

[trapezeus]

What Russ Brandon has been doing is following the orders from his boss until now. He's had increasing powers, but he's not the reason the Bills have fielded a bad team IMO.

Like I alluded to before, I'm not trying to pimp Brandon here. I'm not particularly a fan of his either. The discussion here is about what his actual job duties have been. If we had a good coach, good QB, and a decent team, we wouldn't be talking about him at all in all likelihood...or would you be giving him credit for that? I think that the fact that we do not have those things isn't really his fault, but that doesn't mean that I think highly of him in any way. In fact, I think that making him President of the team is a highly dangerous proposition that will likely end badly...but that remains to be seen. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but I wouldn't get into an argument with someone that thinks that Brandon is Ralph Wilson's puppet.


i would have been giving him credit. especially from 2010 with getting rid of john guy and getting a gm who put a team together, and a coach who got them to the playoffs. i'd say, "he has essentially been the head of this company for awhile and it improved.

But in reality, he's been a senior guy with a lot of influence and he just gets it wrong every step of the way. and as a marketer, he's done very little. selling football in buffalo is not a hard job. especially when you move a game out and scare the crap out of everyone that the team is moving.


I also don't think he's wilson's puppet. i think he probably was and a total suck up to get in the good graces, but as wilson aged a lot in the last 5 years, i think he just gave the keys to russ. and russ doesn't know any better. it's not like he's a rocket scientist. he went to St Fisher for god sakes.

[DraftBoy]

No way in hell I'd resign.

[Extremebillsfan247]

You are a bills fan, in some of the most senior positions for the last 13 years. You have failed consistently and been continuously promoted. Each hire, each selection worse than the last. At this current juncture, would your pride step in and say, "i'm not good at this and i'm hurting a community that i actually like." or would you be a slave to that nice paycheck and keep stealing it until they literally made you walk away?

Fair question, i think. Only because i had this conversation. if i was hurting something that i loved so much and it was obvious that my involvement was hurting it, i would step aside. sweet paycheck or not.
Fan, or no fan, your taking the money. I don't care who you are, or what morals you stand by. 1 look at the salary these guys get, you'd be stupid to decline it regardless of how bad the business is. JMO

[Generalissimus Gibby]

You are a bills fan, in some of the most senior positions for the last 13 years. You have failed consistently and been continuously promoted. Each hire, each selection worse than the last. At this current juncture, would your pride step in and say, "i'm not good at this and i'm hurting a community that i actually like." or would you be a slave to that nice paycheck and keep stealing it until they literally made you walk away?

Fair question, i think. Only because i had this conversation. if i was hurting something that i loved so much and it was obvious that my involvement was hurting it, i would step aside. sweet paycheck or not.

Why would he resign? Ralph is either Weekend at Bernie's or headed that way, its been proven beyond a doubt that no matter how much Russ screws up somebody else is going to get fired and he gets a promotion. Russ has also learned what the LA Clippers learned in the 80s and early nineties in that you can sell tickets and make a **** load of money without ever having to win. Also as he is CEO of the game he gets to have box seats to 16 nfl regular season games and possibly 10+ college games a year and his salary is very handsome. In the off chance that the Bills do one day stumble and bumble into the post season and managed to stumble and fumble over themselves and accidentally win a Lombardi Trophy he gets to put that on his resume. He has almost complete job security, gets a fat pay check, and has an almost complete grip on the franchise. So would I resign if I was Russ? No. Should I resign if I was Russ? Yes. Russ should resign, would he? Hell no.